The Blog Page for Northwest Arkansas Atheists

Morning Meditations #53: A Lucke Tooth

Well, the new crown came out after a whopping 18 hours. I am fortunate that it didn’t come out while I slept on my back, as I know replacement teeth get swallowed often. Not noticing immediately this morning, I wandered into the bathroom to comb my lovely locks, and upon gazing at my morning reflection, I thought, I wonder what the new tooth looks like in the morning. An underwhelming experience when rather than a $900 crown one sees a cavernous gap. I wonder what the ladies at Lucke’s are going to do about it. Not to go on opprobriously, seems like maybe getting so much work done in one place over a short amount of time might have been a bad idea, as they may have gone a little complacent seeing my charming face over and over and over again in the last six months. I can’t wait to see how the morning progresses, as I left them a witty 05:30 voice mail. “And now for something completely different.”

This beautiful painting came home yesterday folded up in Ivy’s back pack. It struck me immediately and now hangs from the wall along her art display line in my room. What a wonderful rendering of the fall forests here in NWA.

Ivy came home yesterday with the most gorgeous forestscape painting. The whole house agreed that it is her best, as in pro-stylie, work of art yet. I imagine the whole class did similar pieces, and hopefully every parent of every child felt the same swelling of pride as I did while taking in the amazing work of art from their little ones. I thought about posting it to FB immediately, but decided to use it as the picture for this post, so that the broadest scope of my audience would get to gaze upon the inner workings of artistic children.

One of my favorite TEDs is the first from Sir Ken Robinson, which I have quoted often, and will again here, reminds us that “all children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up.” This paraphrase on a Picasso statement has been with me since I heard it, and I plan on assisting my daughter every step of the way to the end of keeping her the artist she so clearly is. Interestingly, I have since learned that meditation is also an art form.

Like my writing after the retreat, meditation has been hit or miss. It‘s funny, but being a dedicated meditator allows one to let go of the very need to meditate. Paradox much. This is a further tool toward lifetime practice, as now, I will have to more often choose to sit and be with myself. This is a feature that will also open the path to conditioning more healthy choices. What a gift to one’s self. By opening a space to make a choice that I know is healthy, I inherently add to a behavioral lexicon of my philosophy about choice. Some of us think that feelings and inspiration will just come as a part of life. Sometimes it may, but by and large, I believe we must choose to find these features and put our flags in them. Otherwise, we do not exercise the minor amount of control we do have. Not to mention, how would one become a better choice maker if they did not practice choosing at the internal level? Answer: they won’t. I challenge each of you to choose your feelings about something today. Some of you will make the wrong choice, but in doing so, please, do not lament. Only notice the choice and the mistake, let it go, and await your next opportunity. Who knows how good you’ll get at choosing what to feel about things that seem to be controlling your life. Thus giving you the power to be in the driver seat of your own mind.

I have already chosen many feelings today, and as a result, the day has been fun and fantastic only a little over three hours into it. Good luck!